Why Fashion Designers Don't Dress Fashionably 

Do you ever wonder why fashion designers don't dress very well?
I explain, from a fashion designer's perspective, why I don't dress fashionably.
Ask me a question!
Or leave a comment below to explain why you DO or DON'T dress fashionably!
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Designers are figuring out 1 piece of the puzzle, where stylists are dealing with the big picture puzzle.
I’m like many other fashion designers. I don’t dress particularly well or fashionably. Those of you out there that already know fashion designers don’t dress well, you’re ahead of most. Give me a second and let me help the others catch up and understand that lots of designers don’t dress fashionably.
It’s a classic case of “The cobbler’s son has no shoes”, “There are only wooden spoons at the blacksmith’s house”, “The lady who sells fans fans herself with her hands”, “At the potter’s house water is served in a broken jug”, “The carpenter’s house always needs work, “The architect’s house is always crooked.”
Why People think we dress well:
-Stylists’ Confusion - We didn’t go to school to style outfits. We didn’t learn how to coordinate colors with shapes on different body types. We went to school to learn how to develop designs and how to execute them. I learned absolutely nothing about styling in my 4 years at FIT because my major wasn’t styling.
Why We Don’t:
1. Workaholism - successful designers are obsessed with their work, therefore they tend to neglect all other aspects of their life. And dressing yourself is a completely different animal from dressing other people. And if I know I’m going to make no money off of dressing myself, then I would rather spend my time designing my clothing line. Time is money. Although, I do feel like this is changing with social media and each individual’s ‘personal brand’ is becoming more important.
2. Clothing Exhaustion - I design clothes all day for my target customer. The last thing I want to do when I get home is look at my own clothes and think about what to wear.
3. A designer isn’t usually their customer - Many designers’ target customer isn’t normally a category that they themselves fit into. This can be why you don’t see designers running around in their own pieces. It can be awkward to wear your own clothes if you know you’re not the type of person you’re designing it for.
4. Dressing Yourself Is Hard - Just as it’s easier to judge others actions and life choices, it’s also easier to know what others should be wearing.
It’s hard to realistically judge your own character and therefore it’s also hard to dress yourself. Honestly, my boyfriend has a ton of say in what I wear. He is basically my personal stylist because I can’t figure out how to dress myself. Although I do sometimes ignore his strong opinions.
5. Simplifying life - This is a big trend right now. With all the minimalist living ideas popping up. But there are plenty of people who had this concept in mind before it became cool. Having a daily simplified ‘uniform’ saves time in one’s busy schedule. Think about it: if your whole closet was white button downs, blue jeans, and black sneakers, you would save so much time in the morning. Boom. Especially if you knew you looked good and felt confident in that ‘uniform’. Remember those days when the minute you left your house you regretted what you put on? You would never have a day like this ever again! You could predictably exude confidence. It’s lowering your risk of looking like an idiot.
6. We’re too cool. We’re basically just too cool to dress fashionably. Maybe it’s a bit of an elitist mentality. Everyone knows that fashion wannabes put a lot of effort into what they wear. Who are fashion wannabes you ask? They’re all the other fashion industry professions except for designers. This includes but is not limited to: stylists, buyers, merchandisers, bloggers …
At FIT, the merchandise majors dressed up for class: heels, makeup, the works. The designers didn’t. Our work load was notoriously larger, so we didn’t have the time to pamper ourselves. Plus we had more crap to carry. You can’t wear heels while carrying a suitcase full of paper, fabric, scissors, and humongous rulers, without looking like an idiot.
Dressing comfortably started as a necessity in school and wound up being a key differentiation between us and them as we transitioned into the working world. Too cool for school should really be too cool since school.
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